REVIEWER ROLE IN THE EXPENSE REPORTS PROCESS

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1 REVIEWER ROLE IN THE EXPENSE REPORTS PROCESS General Information & Step-by-Step Instructions for Reviewers on using the Minerva Menu option Open an Expense Report You Started and Saved Prepared by Finance Infrastructure & Support, Financial Services [2013]

2 Definition of a Departmental Reviewer (optional role) The individual, within a particular Unit, who has been delegated to oversee the expense report process. Expense reports are electronically routed to this individual for completion when the menu option "Submit an Expense Report to be finished by Someone Else" is selected by the Requestor in Minerva. The Reviewer may: Enter FOAPAL information Complete/Submit expense repots Tag associated advances to expense reports Disapprove expense reports Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) How does a Departmental Reviewer get set-up? Units who decide to use the "Reviewer" option must submit the Reviewer Authorization Form (listed under System Access Forms) found on the Financial Services website ( This form is used to establish the Primary Reviewer within a Unit who is delegated to oversee the Expense Report review process. How do I know if my Unit/Dept. has a Reviewer? Contact the Administrative Assistant/Officer in your Unit/Dept. As a Reviewer, how do I complete expense reports? This function is performed through Minerva: Employee or Finance (Fund) Administration Menu o Advances & Expense Reports > Submit an Expense Report > Open an Expense Report You Started and Saved Before you begin, make sure you have the following information on hand: The reference number of the report you are reviewing McGill ID of the Claimant/Responsible person Fund(s) to charge OR contact the Finance Help Desk fishelp.acct@mcgill.ca. Page 1 of 9

3 When an expense report is electronically submitted through Minerva, using the Reviewer option, it is printed twice: STEP 1 Print the expense report and attach receipts Attach all receipts any other documents needed to demonstrate expenses incurred and proof of payments STEP 2 Acquire required signatures Claimant STEP 3 Send the signed paper copy and all receipts/ documentation to the Reviewer Send everything to the Unit/Dept. selected as the Reviewer STEP 4 Upon completion, the Reviewer prints the expense report and acquires required signatures Fund Financial Manager (FFM) or Principal Investigator of each fund charged If the Fund Financial Manager or Principal Investigator is the Claimant, signature of their One-up' is mandatory STEP 5 Send the signed paper copy and all receipts/ documentation for approval Send everything to the address indicated on the top left-handcorner of the printed expense report If you have a local FST in place, they will send the signed paper copy and all receipts to the Central Travel Desk for final processing STEP 6 Central Travel Desk receives paper copy Once the Central Travel Desk receives the signed paper copy of the expense report (2 copies one with the Claimant signature + one with the FOAPAL information and FFM/PI signatures) and all related documentation, they will process it for payment OR contact the Finance Help Desk fishelp.acct@mcgill.ca. Page 2 of 9

4 Detailed Instructions for using the Minerva Menu Option Open an Expense Report You Started and Saved as a Reviewer Available in the following Minerva menus: Employee Finance (Fund) Administration Advances & Expense Reports > Submit an Expense Report Use this menu option to: Enter FOAPAL information Complete-Submit expense reports Tag associated advances to expense reports Disapprove expense reports You will only be able to review expense reports that are within your faculty. When you select this menu option: all expense reports which you have started, but which have not been submitted all expense reports which you have submitted and which were subsequently disapproved AND all expense reports which have been sent to your queue as a Reviewer will be displayed on the screen - a brief summary of each expense report will appear in a table. In the Reference # field, a code referring to the status of the request will be displayed. Click on the legend link or place your cursor over the code to view a description of the request status indicator. Requests that need reviewing have a status of FW. OR contact the Finance Help Desk fishelp.acct@mcgill.ca. Page 3 of 9

5 1. Verify the Reference # of the expense report you are about to review. OR Find the expense report among a list of results. To find an expense report among a long list of results, you may do a search by going to Edit in the Tool bar and selecting Find, or as a short-cut you can press Ctrl and the letter F (Ctrl+F) on your keyboard. In the Find text field, enter the Reference Number you are looking up. 2. Click the Open button to begin completing the expense report. 3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the Go to Items button. OR contact the Finance Help Desk fishelp.acct@mcgill.ca. Page 4 of 9

6 Adding FOAPAL information to entered expense items The first expense item is displayed. If the Requestor entered a Fund Code when preparing the expense report, the FOAPAL to charge is displayed - TAB through the FOAPAL fields and make changes as needed. 1. Enter the Fund code and tab to the next field. 2. Orgn (Organization) and Prog (Program) codes are auto-populated based on the entered fund code. 3. Acct (Account) code defaults in based on the selection made from the Expense Item dropdown field. Leave this field as is. 4. Actv (Activity) and Locn (Location) codes default in as You may override these fields. 5. To add/review FOAPAL information for another item, select the appropriate radio button in the Select Item # for update box. FOAPALs need to be entered individually for each expense item. If the expense item is to be split between multiple FOAPALs, the Requestor must have entered in an expense item multiple times. If this has not been done, the request must be disapproved and the Requestor must enter the appropriate number of Items to match the FOAPALs to be charged. OR contact the Finance Help Desk fishelp.acct@mcgill.ca. Page 5 of 9

7 6. Repeat steps 1 to 5 for each expense item. 7. When FOAPAL information has been entered/reviewed for all expense items, click one of the buttons to continue with the expense report. Back to Header will bring you to the previous screen (beginning) of the expense report. Save and View will save the expense report and display the expense report for you to verify. Select this option to continue submitting this expense report. Save and View Option To continue submitting the expense report A summary of the entered expense report is displayed. 1. Verify the Payment Information, Summary of Expenses and FOAPAL distribution sections. o Payment Information displays entered information from the first page of the expense report. o Summary of Expenses displays all entered receipt items. o FOAPAL distribution displays all FOAPALs to be charged for this expense report. Fund Information displays information for all funds charged on this expense report and the approvers associated to each fund. o If your Unit has a local Financial Service Team (FST) in place, the FST Manager who will be electronically approving the request will be displayed. You will be sending all completed documents (paper copy and supporting documentation/receipt(s) for this request) to this person and you may contact them should you have any questions about this request. o If your Unit has no FST in place, then the Fund Administrator (in Financial Services) of the Fund being charged will be electronically approving the request. You will be sending all completed documents (paper copy and supporting documentation/receipt(s) for this request) to the Travel Desk and you may contact the Travel Desk should you have any questions about this request. o The Financial Manager (or Principal Investigator) listed here must sign the paper copy of this request. If more than one fund is being charged, all of the Financial Managers listed in this section must sign the request. If you are the Fund Financial Manager and are also the Claimant, your direct superior must sign the request. OR contact the Finance Help Desk fishelp.acct@mcgill.ca. Page 6 of 9

8 2. Click one of the buttons to continue submitting the expense report. Edit Request will allow you to make further changes to the FOAPAL information for each expense item. It will bring you back to the first screen (beginning) of the expense report. Return to Expense Menu saves the expense report and will bring you back to the Minerva options page for Submit an Expense Report. If you select this option YOU HAVE NOT submitted this request for processing. You will be able to continue editing this expense report by selecting the Minerva Menu Option "Open an Expense Report You Started and Saved".. Disapprove Request will disapprove the expense report. This returns the electronic expense report back to the Requestor so they may open the request and make changes before resubmitting it. See Checklist will bring you to a list of required documentation to help you verify if the expense report complies with the Reimbursement of Expenses Policy. Complete Submit Request will send the expense report for electronic approval and brings you to the next screen to print the request. If you select this option NO further changes can be made to this expense report. If changes are needed, you will need to contact the listed FST Manager/Fund Administrator and ask them to disapprove the request. Disapprove Request To disapprove the expense report and return it to the Requestor s queue for changes 1. For one line item, select a reason from the Approval Status drop-down list which best represents the disapproval reason. If none of the listed reasons reflect your situation, select Disapproved Other (see Comments) There is no need to disapprove each FOAPAL on a line-by-line basis it is sufficient to disapprove one line item. OR contact the Finance Help Desk fishelp.acct@mcgill.ca. Page 7 of 9

9 2. Enter an explanation in the Rejection Text box. Be sure to include your initials and the date you are disapproving the expense report. 3. Click the Submit button. The message you entered in the Rejection Text box will be sent to the Requestor of the expense report. Once an expense report is disapproved, you can no longer open it. It has been returned to the Requestor to make corrections. The Requestor will be able to edit the expense report using the menu Open an Expense Report You Started and Saved. If you are disapproving an expense report for a Student, and receive an error message No is found... this is due to the fact that the student does not have a McGill address as the "preferred" address in their profile. The request will have been successfully transferred back to the Student's queue, however, they will not have received the automated message. You will need to contact the Student directly and let them know that the request has been disapproved. Complete Submit Request Option To reconcile advances (if needed) and print the expense report once it has been submitted for electronic approval If there are outstanding accountable advances associated with the Claimant/Responsible Person, they will be listed on this screen: 1. Select any advances associated with this trip by clicking on the respective check boxes under the EXR select column. All receipts pertaining to advances must have been entered as separate expense items on the expense report. 2. If needed, verify the details of the advance request by clicking on the hyperlinked Reference number the advance will open in a new browser window. 3. Click the Continue button. The completed expense report is displayed. If advances were reconciled on the expense report, the system will calculate the total amount to be reimbursed to the Claimant taking into account advances already received. If the full amount of the advance is not accounted for, there will be a balance owing to the University. This balance must be remitted to the University in the form of a cheque, made payable to McGill University, and attached to the expense report. OR contact the Finance Help Desk fishelp.acct@mcgill.ca. Page 8 of 9

10 The expense report must be printed, signed, and sent to the address displayed at the top of the request. Be sure to verify where to send the request. The person and address is marked in the top left corner. If you have a local Financial Service Team in place, you will be prompted to send all completed documents to your local resource instead of the Travel Desk (3465 Durocher Street, 2nd floor). You will not receive an confirming that the expense report was successfully submitted. Each request is assigned a unique reference number that can be used to track its status. The Reference # assigned to the expense report is displayed near the top of the screen. 1. Click on Print and mail hard copy to above address to print the request. Do not forget to attach all receipt(s) to the request. Signatures must appear on the printed page containing the following information - see sample expense report signature page : - Reference Number - Payable to - In the amount of - Attestations 2. Click on Exit at the top right corner of the screen. 3. Ensure the appropriate individuals sign the expense report: Claimant o In the case of visitors to the University who will depart prior to their requests being processed in the system, the Visitor Claimant Signature form ( - listed under Travel related forms) may be signed and attached to the expense report. o When paying an Organization, the Claimant signature box is left blank. Fund Financial Manager or Principal Investigator of each fund charged. If the claimant is the Fund Financial Manager, their direct superior ( One-Up ) must sign this request 4. Forward the signed request (and all receipts/documentation) to the address displayed on the expense report. If a Financial Service Team-FST has been assigned to your Unit, they will forward the request to the Travel Desk. OR contact the Finance Help Desk fishelp.acct@mcgill.ca. Page 9 of 9